What do you use to cut metal?

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Forum

I have 10 picture frames that I need to complete all with a plaque at the bottom saying "PRESENTED BY THE ....."

I have just purchased metal from sublimetals and was wondering what everyone uses to cut this to the correct size. I figure that guillotine will burr the edges but cutting by hand with a scalpal just takes too long.

Any ideas?

[ASLCreative]

I thought all of the subli metal blanks on the market are cut to size using a guillotine. If you get a burred edge just use a file to smooth it down (it will be on the back so the customer will not see it)

[socialgiraffe]

Hi ASL

Yes, you can purchase them in set sizes and they will cut for you a specific size. But I would rather purchase bigger sheets and cut them down to the size I need.

I might have a wander up to Hobbycraft and see what they have knocking around.

[John G]

I used to use something similar to this to cut ali pad printing plates. I'm sure there will be a few knocking around fleebay.

[easiprint]

We got one of the cutters John G mentioned from TMT. Not all that cheap, but of you do a lot of metal, well worth it. We also got one of the round corner cutters from TMT - both work great

[socialgiraffe]

Cheers John G and Easiprint.

Not a lot of money so will look into these machines.

[arti]

Has anyone tried using a heavy duty paper cutting guillotine on aluminium .5mm or even .7mm thickness. If they cut 20 or 30 sheets of paper in one go I would think they would do the job. I have a small guillotine (10 sheet max) that I use for the paper cutting, I have tried it on .5 aluminium and it gets about 3"inch of the way across and then just slides away. The 3" that it doe's cut is quit good and straight. I had some damaged boards that just needed a inch or so cut off the end, I ended up using a sheet metal cutting wheel which did the job but this leaves teeth marks in one site of the board and the tool takes a bit of getting use to. I would like to have a guillotine around but for the amount of use that it would get, the one above is too much money.

[sharyn]

I use a guillotine for cutting aluminium sheets ..works great but have found I need to tape it down to make sure it doesn't move